


Contentment

by hjea



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-02
Updated: 2017-08-02
Packaged: 2018-12-10 07:22:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11686797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hjea/pseuds/hjea
Summary: Set mid-episode 106 "The Endless Atheneeum." Keyleth and Vax take a moment for themselves in the mansion's spa.





	Contentment

**Author's Note:**

  * For [peacefulboo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/peacefulboo/gifts).



> I hope these two sad but loving goobers help speed you on your recovery, my dear!
> 
> Un-beta'd in my procrastinated haste to get this up in time, so please forgive its mistakes.

Cleaning the blood off Vax had been surprisingly… fun, Keyleth reflected as she slipped into her nightgown. Giddy with success and the relief of securing another seed of power from the Raven Queen, Vax had all but dragged her to the mansion’s sub-basement spa after waving goodnight at Percy, unceremoniously dropping blood-soaked armour and clothing unto the floor as he went before plunging face first into the warm water with a great sigh of pleasure. 

Keyleth had taken a little more time, carefully placing her headdress on a convenient ledge before she shimmied out of her own clothes and left them in a more-or-less neat pile. Vax watched her from the water, head just barely bobbing above the surface as he tinged the water pink around him, and waggled his eyebrows appreciatively when she finally made her way to the edge. 

“Coming in, druid?” 

Keyleth wrinkled her nose for effect. “You’re getting blood everywhere,” she pointed out, and cast a gust cantrip at the water to disperse it. Vax floated closer to her and chuckled. “‘S bit rich coming from someone who still has a ring of the stuff around her mouth.”

“Wha--?” Keyleth barely had time to raise her hand to wipe at her mouth before his hand wrapped around her ankle and tugged. She yelped in surprise--his skin was already warm from the water, which shouldn’t have felt so unexpected already--and fell with a flailing of limbs into the water beside him. She surfaced, sputtering coppery-tasting water, hair plastered to the front of her face so she could barely see, and struck a glancing blow at Vax’s shoulder. 

“Ouch!” He winced dramatically, and Keyleth rolled her eyes. “Oh, you’re such a--” 

“--such a what?” Vax laughed unrepentantly. 

“Such a… _Vax_!” She cried, and cast a small tidal wave directly into his face. 

“I’m fairly sure that’s cheating, Kiki.” Vax said, when he finally swam his way back across the pool to her. Keyleth grinned. “At least it got the last of the blood out of your roots,” she said, and pressed a conciliatory kiss to his hairline. Vax wrapped his arm around her waist and tugged her against him, pressing his own kiss to her neck and then down across the top of her collarbone, and Keyleth sighed happily and moved even closer, wrapping her long legs around him. She was so content in that one brief moment, to be held nearly weightless by the man she loved, his water-warmed skin sliding against her own and his heartbeat--still far too slow but at least solidly there--thumping steadily beneath her breasts. 

“Should we talk yet?” Vax mumbled against her throat, just before he moved and she could feel his teeth close gently around her earlobe. Keyleth shivered in delight. “No.” She drew his face up to hers and pressed a searing kiss to his mouth. “Not yet.” 

He was watching her again now from their bed, as the nightgown settled across her shoulders. Eyes half closed in sated exhaustion, Vax tugged the sheets down a little as she got closer, and echoed himself with a wry grin. “Coming in, druid?” 

His skin was already cooling rapidly when she slid in beside him, and the wingtip bruises she had managed to ignore completely not an hour ago now stood out in stark relief against his bare chest. Vax followed her gaze down and sighed. “ _Keek_ \--” he started, voice suddenly full of sorrowful apology. 

“--Don’t. Vax, I…” Keyleth hesitated before laying her head against his shoulder and draping her arm across his stomach. “I can’t. Not now. Not--and, and I can’t keep _mourning_ you before you’re even gone. It isn’t _fair_. None of this is _fair_.” 

“I know.” Vax whispered. 

“Did you,” Keyleth hesitated again. “Did you hear what Ioun said? About the gods’ path for us not not necessarily set in stone?” 

There was a long pause before Vax finally spoke. “Yes.” 

“And?” 

“And… I don’t know, Kiki. Even now I understand so little of what has happened to me--to all of us. And I’m afraid if I hope…” He groaned softly. “I just know the path I’m on now. I know we have to finish this, and make sure there’s a bright future waiting for you, for my sister, for the whole world. And after that…” 

Keyleth closed her eyes against threatening tears and counted the space between his heartbeats. “ _Don’t go_.” 

“I won’t,” Vax’s arms tightened around her. “Not tonight at least.” 

Keyleth nodded, and knew she would have to be content with that.


End file.
